Adam snarled, jealousy rising to the surface.

Bea perked up. “And that is a good distinction. We are allowed to be here. You’re not. Why, we could just call the Rangers right now and let them know we have ourselves a Maverick. Maybe that’s what we ought to do.”

For the first time Adam looked distraught, not superior. “You have a phone?”

“Of course we have a phone,” Bea guffawed. They did not have a phone.

Adam blanched. “Please don’t.” He crawled on his knees over to Bea. “Please, I can’t go back. I won’t talk about the Mavericks anymore. I’ll be good. I promise.”

With Adam cowering it was hard to continue with the threat. Bea nodded.

Debra glared at her as Adam rose, shaking, and went to sleep under a tree.

“That was so mean, Bea,” she scolded.

Debra followed Adam, Agnes assumed to console him. She must have also told him there were no phones because after that it was Mavericks this and Mavericks that for days. It sounded at times like Adam was a superfan of the Mavericks and not necessarily one himself.

After that Debra and Adam were inseparable, which upset Dr. Harold a great deal.

“I don’t see why we are harboring this . . . this fugitive,” Dr. Harold muttered whenever anyone was in earshot.

“Oh, enough,” Debra huffed. “He has as much right to be here as we do.”

“That is patently false,” Dr. Harold sniped back. “He has zero right to be here. And we have one hundred percent right to be here. We have official paperwork.”

“It’s a free country,” she said.

Juan snorted, “No, it’s not, Debra.” He was still bitter from having shared a bed with her.

“But it’s against the rules,” Dr. Harold said quietly.

“Since when are you such a stickler for the rules?” Debra snapped.

Dr. Harold’s jaw dropped. “Debra, I’ve always been a stickler for the rules,” he said, clearly hurt. “Did you not know that?”

Debra shrugged, irritated, distracted. “Adam,” she barked, and his hand shot up from the sleeping circle where he was lounging and she went and lay down with him.

Dr. Harold looked down at the ground, dejected. Patty’s mom patted his arm.

It was hard to know what to do with Adam. They trained him in camp chores. He was okay at working but not great. They didn’t want to show him how to do too much because all the things they had learned over the years now felt valuable. It was knowledge they felt they should protect and keep secret. So they butchered, tanned, darned, mended and sewed, shot arrows, hulled rice, shelled pine nuts, filtered water all with their backs to him. Debra showed him how to sew with sinew even though they’d told her not to, but otherwise they thought they kept their skills and secrets hidden. They didn’t know if he was a foe. But they knew he wasn’t their friend.

Still, Adam found out about things they would have preferred he not know.

“Why are you headed to the Caldera?” he asked while skulking in the shadows one evening. Carl and Bea were laying out their planned route for the next days.

“It’s where we were told to go,” said Bea.

“Hmm,” he said.

They started discussing again, but in whispers.

“Why were you told to go there?” he interrupted again. He squinted at them. “I mean, do you even know?”

“Of course we know. There’s a party.”

“A party?” Adam howled.

“Yeah, there’s a new Post on the Caldera and they’re having a party to celebrate.”

“The only thing on the Caldera is their Lodge and that’s their special meeting place. Believe me, you wouldn’t be invited to any party the Rangers were throwing at the Lodge. They hate you.”

“No, they don’t.” Bea sat a little straighter. “They’re having the party for us.”

“Hmm,” he said again, stroking his chin and peering at Bea. “I thought you were, like, the smart one.”

“Don’t start,” Carl snapped.

Adam raised his hands. “Hey, I’m just saying, I wouldn’t trust what the Rangers told me. Especially if they invited me to a party. What are they going to do when you get there, roast you over an open fire?”

Bea rolled her eyes. “Don’t be an idiot. We’ve known the Rangers for a long time. Yes, some of them are assholes. Many, even. But not all. We have a relationship.”

Adam howled again, but he kept whatever made him laugh to himself.

“Well,” said Helen. “I can’t wait to get there. I need a good party.”

“I’ve always wanted to see the Caldera,” said Dr. Harold. “We weren’t allowed to go before.”

Adam’s eyes danced over their faces. “Amazing that you just go where you’re told to go and avoid what you’re told to avoid. Yes, sir, no, sir. I mean, getting here took some creativity, I’ll give you that. But honestly, haven’t you evolved yet? What happened to free will? Didn’t you talk about that, Carl, in one of those stupid interviews you did forever ago?”

“Do you ever want to eat again?” threatened Carl.

Adam put his hands up. “I didn’t mean to offend,” he said. Though it was obvious he had. Debra cackled alone.

Adam was lounging by the fire, his feet up on the Cast Iron, chewing on a twig. “I just know I wouldn’t go if I were you.” He shrugged.

Bea glared. “Well, nobody asked you to go,” she said matter-of-factly. “You can go wherever you want. But we’re going to the Caldera. And we’re going in the morning.”

Adam smirked. “A unanimous decision I see.”

“This conversation is over,” said Carl. “You can sleep out there.” He waved his hand into the dark. “With Glen.”

“You can sleep with me, Adam,” said Debra, sneering at Carl.

Agnes looked at Carl. His face was raging. She looked to her mother and saw that she was angry too, but in a very different way.

As Agnes fell asleep, she could hear their curt, cross whispers.

*

The Community woke to a scream. Debra’s. She was standing by her bed, a skin wrapped around her. Her eyes were fixed on the bedding at her feet. Adam usually slept there, but now the bed was empty except for a pool of blood on the skins.

Carl knelt over the blood and dipped his finger in it. He sniffed it. Licked it. His face screwed. “This is rabbit blood,” he said.

“How do you know?” said Debra.

“You can taste the rabbit.” He waved his hand at it. “See for yourself.”

Some tried it. They nodded.

It was rabbit blood.

“What an amateur,” Carl scoffed. “Did he think we wouldn’t taste the blood?”

The camp had been overturned. A pouch of meat was gone, some sewing and patching materials, two skins they had just finished tanning, and the Cast Iron.

“That son of a bitch,” said Frank.

“Well, he certainly had help,” said Carl. “He couldn’t carry the Cast Iron by himself.”

Debra sniffed. “He’s stronger than you think.”

“Why are you defending him?” Carl said.

Debra’s face crumpled. “I don’t know,” she cried, flinging herself to her bed, into the blood and everything.

The group tightened their circle. Some thought he’d acted alone and staged a violent kidnapping. Some thought he must have reconnected with Mavericks, who helped him. Maybe it had been a setup from the beginning. He’d been a plant. A mole. Whatever he was, he was also a scoundrel.

Agnes thought he was probably just strong enough to carry all of that alone. It’s why he took only one pouch of meat. A group would have taken more.

They searched for clues to the direction the Cast Iron might have been taken. They reported evidence like broken twigs and a footprint, some scratched bark, and a chunk of fallen jerky all at the edge of the forest, heading toward the Caldera.

“Well, we know the direction he went,” said Helen.

“Or they went,” whispered Patty’s mom.

“I think we should try to overtake him,” said Carl. “He can’t get far carrying that pot.” Carl’s fist twitched, opened and closed, as though he could see Adam right in front of him.

Debra welled up again. “Don’t hurt him.”

Agnes couldn’t remember seeing Debra ever cry before today, even when her wife had left early on. Or when Caroline died. She hadn’t thought Debra was capable of it. Agnes crouched to where Debra was curled and put her hand on her back. “I’m sorry, Debra.”

“Don’t give her any pity,” said Bea. “This is all her fault.”

“Me?” Debra shrieked through a sob. “You told him he couldn’t come to the Caldera.”

“Well you’re the one who wanted to give him water in the first place.”

“But you’re the one who said we could,” said Debra. “You’re the leader. It’s your job to say no. So this is your fault,” she screamed.

Agnes couldn’t remember ever hearing Debra scream before today either. It was turning out to be an interesting day for Debra.

Bea’s fists clenched at her sides. She looked as though she had an army of words heaving against her gritted teeth. But she held them all back and finally said, “We have to try to track him. That pot is too valuable to us. That bag had a lot of meat in it. And that pemmican is irreplaceable when winter comes. Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop crying, Debra.”

*